Dragonrock

Dragonrock is the hardest known material in the universe, even stronger than its cousin, diamond. Most forms of it have a purple hue and are luminescent.

Dragonrock is an allotrope of iron, more specifically a form of the delta allotrope. This results in it having a cubic crystal structure as well it being non-magnetic. It is a metamorphic rock, formed by the compression associated with intense volcanic activity. Normally when a delta allotrope cools down, it forms austenite, but because Dragonrock forms in the lower part of a planet's crust, it maintains its general crystalline structure and remains that way due to compression even when it cools down. For this reason, it is not only extremely rare, but difficult to properly extract and isolate

A single gram of Dragonrock has an average market value of 80,000 Nras as the planets it usually forms on are hostile, further complicating an already risky and expensive mining procedure specific to the material. The majority of Dragonrock is extracted from the cores of super-earths and volcanic worlds. These planets are made of silicate with a rocky iron core, though planets with a cooled mantle are considered the most cost efficient to mine from. There is currently no known method to derive Dragonrock from ordinary iron artificially within reasonable cost.

While Dragonrock requires extremely high pressure to form naturally, its ore requires temperatures of over 1600 K to refine and reshape properly. As a result, an important criteria for searching for a practical source of Dragonrock is the proximity of a refinery capable of smelting at such high temperatures.

Dragonrock ore is also luminescent as the crystals formed are transparent. This happens after the Dragonrock cools down losing its color. However, the transparent crystals trap purple light. The light is then refracted which makes it glow in the dark.